Steve wrote; >Isn't the aft most portion of a kayak's keelson referred to as a skeg? Some >have deep skegs, <i.e.. Broze's boats, Eddyline Falcon>, and some have a >retractable skeg, <i.e.. Current Design Gulfstream, Valley Pintail> and some >have no skeg <i.e.. Dagger RPM, Perception 3-D> > >The depth of this portion of the hull would then dictate the hull's >trackability, realizing that other aspects of the hull form would also play a >role in the performance of said hull. No, a skeg as defined by my dear friend Thomas Gilmer the professor of naval Architecture at the US Naval Academy (and others) is -"A projection from a fixed appendage applied to the underwater hull, generally to increase the lateral area and give increased swing damping and dynamic lateral stability to the hull. A skeg is usually of large lateral area compared to its transverse thickness, is usually fitted in the vertical plane, and is in the after part of the vessel." Why the distinction? To define clearly the difference between a boat with steep deadrise aft and a boat fitted with an appendage. Matt's boats do not have skegs, they have a steep deadrise aft and a relatively straight keel line aft. Naval architecture uses a precise language to enable designers to converse clearly about complex three dimensional shapes. For example, Steve mentions a keelson. To a naval architect a keelson is a fore and aft above the bottom shell on either side of the keel. A kind of auxiliary keel if you will. I suspect that what Steve was talking about was the bottom hull profile not the keelson. Sounds like nit picking but if you tell a shipwright to deepen the keelson when you mean the profile you will be a bit surprised by the result. Cheers, John Winters Redwing Designs Specialists in Human Powered Watercraft http://home.ican.net/~735769/ *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.gasp-seakayak.net/paddlewise/ ***************************************************************************Received on Fri Dec 25 1998 - 07:57:38 PST
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